Skip to content
You are not logged in |Login  
     
Limit search to available items
Record:   Prev Next
Resources
More Information
Bestseller
BestsellerE-book
Author Townsend, John Marshall.

Title What women want-- what men want : why the sexes still see love and commitment so differently / John Marshall Townsend.

Publication Info. Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 1998.

Item Status

Description 1 online resource (x, 287 pages)
Physical Medium polychrome
Description text file
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 271-282) and index.
Contents Introduction: attractiveness, sexuality, and choosing mates -- Women's and men's sexualities: differences in arousal, goals, and selectivity -- Emotional alarms: the link between sex and love -- What do women want? women's perceptions of sexual attractiveness -- Choosing partners for marriage: male status and female competition -- What do men want? men's criteria for choosing partners -- The dating-mating market: the man shortage and marriage squeeze -- Romance, male dominance and the quest for investment -- What men and women want in marriage -- Who does the diapers and the dishes? the domestic division of labor -- Are men and women alike around the globe? sex in China and Samoa -- Conclusion: coping with sex differences and cultural change.
Summary Following the work of E.O. Wilson, Desmond Morris, and David Buss, What Women Want-What Men Want offers compelling new evidence about the real reasons behind men's and women's differing sexual psychologies and sheds new light on what men and women look for in a mate, the predicament of marriage in the modern world, the relation between sex and emotion, and many other hotly debated questions. Drawing upon 2000 questionnaires and 200 intimate interviews that show how our sexual psychologies affect everyday decisions, John Townsend argues against the prevailing ideologically correct belief that differences in sexual behaviour are "culturally constructed." Townsend shows there are deep-seated desires inherited from our evolutionary past that guide our actions. In a fascinating series of experiments, men and women were asked to indicate preferences for potential mates based on their attractiveness and apparent economic status. Women overwhelmingly preferred expensively dressed men to more attractive but apparently less successful men, and men were clearly inclined to choose more attractive women regardless of their professional status.; Townsend's studies also indicate that men are predisposed to value casual sex, whereas women cannot easily separate sexual relations from the need for emotional attachment and economic security. Indeed, wherever men possess sexual alternatives to marriage, and women possess economic alternatives, divorce rates will be high. In the concluding chapter, Townsend draws upon the advice of couples who have maintained their marriages over the years to suggest ways to survive our evolutionary predicament. Lucidly and accessibly written, What Women Want-What Men Want shows us why we are the way we are and brings new clarity to one of the most intractable debates of our time.
Local Note eBooks on EBSCOhost EBSCO eBook Subscription Academic Collection - North America
Subject Sex differences (Psychology)
Sex differences (Psychology)
Man-woman relationships.
Man-woman relationships.
Men -- Psychology.
Men -- Psychology.
Men -- Sexual behavior.
Men -- Sexual behavior.
Women -- Psychology.
Women -- Psychology.
Women -- Sexual behavior.
Women -- Sexual behavior.
Genre/Form Electronic books.
Subject Men.
Women.
Womyn.
Other Form: Print version: Townsend, John Marshall. What women want-- what men want. Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 1998 (DLC) 97043547
ISBN 9780195114881 (electronic book ; Adobe Reader)
0195114884 (electronic book ; Adobe Reader)
1423736672 (electronic book)
9781423736677 (electronic book)
1280454121
9781280454127
0195114884 (alkaline paper)